How to Join TRAIL
Institutions wishing to participate in TRAIL should fill out the TRAIL Participant Agreement form. As of FY22, TRAIL members pay an annual membership fee of $3,000.
Individuals who work at institutions that are not institutional members may join TRAIL by filling out the Individual Participant Agreement form. There is no membership fee for Individual Members of TRAIL.
TRAIL is looking for additional partners to participate in the project.
Institutions, whether large or small, can participate in many ways, including (but not limited to):
- Contributing, soliciting, or acquiring content that can be used in the project’s digitization streams
- Identifying and analyzing proposed content for inclusion in the project’s collections
- Providing technical support and expertise for the digitization, quality control, interface, or digital archiving
- Sharing need and opportunity to pursue particular collections
- Collaborating with federal agencies to determine digitization strategies for selected public domain content
- Reviewing scanned documents to ensure quality control and accessibility
- Assisting with communications about project activities and needed items
- Answering reference questions regarding access to particular requested documents.
Additional questions about participation in TRAIL may be answered in the Frequently Asked Questions document.
Benefits of TRAIL Membership
Be Part of a National Digitization Project
- Join a highly visible, successful open-access initiative preserving technical reports.
- Shape TRAIL’s future—members influence digitization priorities and strategy.
Support Preservation & Collection Management
- Free up library space by digitizing aging or high-priority materials.
- Contribute collections for scanning and gain access to TRAIL’s collection analysis tools.
Enhance Content Discovery for Users
- Provide immediate access to digitized reports via technicalreports.org.
- Add TRAIL to your institution’s electronic resource list.
Leverage & Share Subject Expertise
- Members offer technical expertise, subject knowledge, and support.
- Institutions can rely on TRAIL experts to navigate complex technical report series.
TRAIL Timeline
2003–2005: Laying the Groundwork
- Discussions began at the University of Arizona (UA) on digitizing U.S. federal technical reports.
- A pilot project was proposed to explore challenges and feasibility.
- The Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) expressed interest.
2006: Project Launch & Early Development
- GWLA approved the project, forming the GWLA/CRL Federal Technical Reports Task Force.
- Institutions like UA, University of Washington, and Linda Hall Library joined.
- Initial digitization test conducted on 200–500 reports.
- First collection scanned: Monograph Series of the National Bureau of Standards.
2007: Naming & Expansion
- Pilot project officially named TRAIL (Technical Report Archive & Image Library).
- GWLA institutions pledged funding (~$120,000).
- The University of Arkansas became the first digitization “node” with the U.S. Bureau of Mines reports.
- University of Michigan joined, integrating with Google’s scanning initiative.
2008–2010: Growth & Recognition
- TRAIL website launched, logo finalized.
- The University of North Texas (UNT) became a key hosting partner.
- 2010: TRAIL won the ALA/GODORT/LexisNexis Documents to the People Award.
- TRAIL joined CRL’s Global Resource Network, creating a formal membership structure.
2011–2015: Scaling Up
- First TRAIL elections held under new bylaws.
- Membership surpassed previous GWLA numbers.
- 2013: TRAIL search widget developed at Iowa State.
- 2015: TRAIL’s collection exceeded 1 million pages, with over 50,000 reports digitized.
2016–2019: Expanding Reach & Digitization Efforts
- 2016: 10-year anniversary of TRAIL.
- 2017: Over 61,500 technical reports available.
- First microcard digitization pilot initiated.
- 2019: Second microcard digitization project approved.
2020–2022: Adapting & Advancing
- 2020: TRAIL Metrics Page launched, first quarterly newsletter published.
- COVID-19 impacted operations, but TRAIL continued work via virtual meetings.
- 2021: Microcard digitization completed, Google Scanning Center reopened.
- 2022: TRAIL content resumed flowing into HathiTrust Digital Library.
Looking Forward
TRAIL continues to expand its collection, digitizing valuable technical reports and ensuring long-term access to these critical resources.
TRAIL Guides
Series information can be found on our Series Processing Inventories Guide.
This guide also lists information on the reports we need in order to complete our work on various series.
TRAIL Search Interface
The TRAIL Search Interface is the free search engine for finding TRAIL digitized content: http://www.technicalreports.org/trail/search/.
Please feel free to add this link to any guides, webpages, or instructional material where it would be useful.
TRAIL Widget
The TRAIL widget is a search box that can be added to your LibGuides or webpages allowing users to search the TRAIL archive easily. It brings the search interface to your users!
Librarians using Springshare’s LibGuides software are familiar with the availability of many search widgets and the customization features available.
Example of the TRAIL Widget used in a Technical Report LibGuide at Iowa State University.
The TRAIL Widget Code can be found on the right side of the TRAIL LibGuide.
If you need technical assistance regarding this widget, contact Norma Dowell.
Social Media
| Facebook Image 1 | Instagram Image 1 | X Image 1 |
| Facebook Image 2 | Instagram Image 2 | X Image 2 |
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Sample text for social media:
- Get free full-text access to U.S. government technical reports from over 20 different agencies. Learn more about TRAIL at www.crl.edu/programs/trail
- Technical Report Archive & Image Library (TRAIL), an initiative to provide free full-text digital access to federal technical reports. www.crl.edu/programs/trail
- Over 85,000 U.S. government agency technical reports all openly accessible from a single source at www.technicalreports.org.
- The mission of TRAIL is to ensure preservation, discoverability, and persistent open access to U.S. government technical publications regardless of form or format.
Don't forget to link to our social media outlets for updates from TRAIL
Brochures
These brochures highlight the importance of technical reports and highlight TRAIL tools to access reports. The brochures contain the same content, but one has more color and the other has less color, and is therefore cheaper to print. Designed to help TRAIL libraries spread the word among library staff, research and teaching faculty, students, and others as an introduction to TRAIL, as well as to opportunities to participate in TRAIL.
Logos
Use TRAIL logos to promote TRAIL in your local institution's social media announcements, newsletters, and more.
TRAIL@15
In 2021, TRAIL celebrated fifteen years of preserving technical reports and making them accessible. Here is the video and logo from that year.
TRAIL Metrics
TRAIL statistics are updated every six months, generally in January and July. Some statistics reported below are for the most recent six months, while others are cumulative.
The statistics below are current as of March 17, 2024.
Cumulative Statistics
|
Number of TRAIL reports available in the HathiTrust Digital Library |
66,195 |
|
Number of TRAIL items available in the University of North Texas Digital Library |
32,509 |
|
Total Reports/Items in Repositories |
124,865 |
|
Total Reports/Items Available |
98,704 |
Statistics for the most recent six-month period (July - December 2023)
|
Number of technical reports processed for digitization |
1,469 |
|
Usage of TRAIL content held at the University of North Texas |
192,753 |
|
Number of TRAIL search interface sessions |
2,096 |
|
Number of TRAIL search interface users |
1,576 |
Current Statistics (as of January 1, 2024)
|
Number of TRAIL institutional members |
59 |
|
Number of TRAIL personal members |
14 |
Definitions
Number of reports processed
The number of reports that have been processed and counted in one of TRAIL's repositories. Processed reports may not be publicly available.
Total Reports/Items Available
The combined number of reports (from each TRAIL repository) that are available for public view.
Usage of UNT-located TRAIL content
The number of uses of the TRAIL items stored in the University of North Texas (UNT) Digital Library. It is not yet technically possible to provide similar usage statistics for the TRAIL content stored in the HathiTrust Digital Library, TRAIL’s other digitization/preservation partner.
Number of TRAIL search interface sessions
The number of times individual IP/browser combinations accessed the TRAIL search interface for up to 30 minutes.
Number of TRAIL search interface users
The number of individual IP/browser combinations that access the TRAIL search interface.
TRAIL Acknowledgements
TRAIL would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following individuals, organizations, and institutions. If we have missed a contribution of which you are aware, please let us know. Email us at trail@crl.edu
Financial Contributors
TRAIL Member Institutions
University of Hong Kong
Content Contributors
University of Arkansas
University of Arizona
Auburn University
Bowdoin College Library
University of California at Davis
California Institute of Technology
University of Cincinnati
Cleveland Public Library
Colorado School of Mines
Colorado State University
University of Connecticut
Dallas Public Library
Denver Public Library
Drake University
Evergreen
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of Illinois
Iowa State University
Johns Hopkins University
Kansas State University
Lehigh University
Linda Hall Library
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Michigan State University
National Transportation Library
New Orleans Public Library
University of New Mexico
Nielsen Engineering & Research, Inc.
University of Notre Dame
Ohio Northern University
Oklahoma Dept. of Libraries
Oklahoma State University
Pennsylvania State University
Princeton University
Rawlins Public Library
Rice University
Rutgers University
San Diego Public Library
San Francisco Public Library
Seattle Public Library
Southwestern Research Institute
Stanford University
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Texas A & M University
Texas State Library
University of Tulsa
USGS Fort Collins Science Center
University of Utah
University of Washington
Washington State University
Western Wyoming Community College
University of Wisconsin, Madison
University of Wyoming
Additional Significant Contributors
University of Arizona - Project idea originator
Linda Hall Library - Project idea support. Provided technical report scans used in the pilot digitization project.
Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) - Pilot project sponsorship
Center for Research Libraries (CRL) - Continued development and support of TRAIL as part of the Global Resources Network
University of Hawaii at Manoa - Hosting of pilot search interface
University of Washington - Hosting of TRAIL search interface
University of North Texas - Acts as one of the Streams receiving documents to be digitized and hosts part of the TRAIL digitized collection
TRAIL Glossary
This glossary was created to explain terms and concepts used by TRAIL. It is intended as an explanatory guide for current and potential members.
Agency: A specific entity of the United States Government as defined by the United States Government Manual(http://www.usgovernmentmanual.gov).
Central Processing Unit: The institution receiving collections for digitization from the Nodes. This Unit assembles collections and inventories the collections in the TRAIL Collection Processing Database. Catalog records for each technical report are created and the cataloging is supplied to OCLC. The appropriate Stream is determined and collections are shipped to be digitized.
Content Contributors: institution(s)providing technical reports to a Node. A Content Contributor’s responsibilities include creating an inventory of the reports, taking the necessary steps to have the reports removed from their collections, and shipping the reports to the appropriate Node.
Member Organization: Any organization interested in supporting the work of TRAIL that has submitted a signed member agreement and has paid the annual membership fee.
Member Representatives: The person designated by the Member Organizationto have voting authority in elections, bylaw revisions and other governance issues. This person is responsible for being the primary contact between TRAIL and the Member Organization. The Member Representative may also elect to participate in TRAIL activities such as standing for elected offices and serving on the Steering Committee, working groups and/or task forces. This person must be employed by the Member Organization and not be a student.
Member Participants: The employees of a Member Organization participating in TRAIL project activities. Member Participants, other than the Member Representative, do not have voting authority, but can participate in all other TRAIL activities.
Node: An institution responsible for soliciting and collecting from Content Contributors a copy of reports in a series to form a collection to be digitized. The Node adds information about the reports to the Central Processing Unit inventory, and ships them to the Central Processing Unit.
Personal Members: Personal Members are individuals who are interested in supporting TRAIL, but work at non-member institutions. Personal Members do not pay a yearly membership fee and are encouraged to participate in TRAIL’s Working Groups and activities. The TRAIL Bylaws were amended to include Personal Members in 2015.
Series: A defined publication with a unique SuDoc call number that is numbered or unnumbered.
Note: Title changes without SuDoc changes do not constitute a new series.
Streams: The destination of the technical reports to be digitized after processing at the Central Processing Unit. Presently there are two main streams; the Google Stream and the University of North Texas (UNT) Stream. The Google Stream is in collaboration with University of Michigan Digitization Project. Reports entering this stream must be in print and all components (maps, foldouts, etc.) of the report must be of a uniform size. Reports entering the UNT Stream may be print or microform. Print reports entering this path will be those where all components are not of uniform size. If a Content Contributor is loaning reports and therefore wants them returned, those reports will also enter the UNT Stream.
TRAIL Annual Meeting: The in-person meeting of the Steering Committee, that is usually held in spring and open to all Member Representatives and Member Participants of TRAIL. The meeting is a venue for acquainting everyone with TRAIL and also to discuss the direction of the project including strategic planning.
TRAIL Guides: (trailguides.crl.edu/series) online listing of series inventories. These inventories are useful in determining what TRAIL has processed and what reports are needed.